Measuring the Uniformity of Hot-Mix Asphalt Pavements with Digital Image Technology

This paper discusses the application of imaging techniques in a system for assessing the uniformity of newly constructed pavements. The developed system is designed to be used for the detection of segregated Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) areas and identification of these areas along a road for HMA quality assurance purposes. The system uses relatively low cost off-the-shelf components for capturing images of new pavements and applies innovative image processing and analysis software for detecting and quantifying segregated areas. The development has included the design of the hardware component of the system as well as the development of the necessary image processing and analysis software. Challenges in the hardware design included the positioning of the camera on a moving vehicle and development of an appropriate illumination system. The image processing module uses a Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM), commonly used in visual texture analysis, to compute various different parameters that characterize surface texture. Measures of contrast, correlation, energy, and homogeneity are used to discriminate areas having different visual texture characteristics in the pavement surface. Testing of the system has been conducted at the Virginia Smart Road. The outputs of the system appear to be well suited for automatic identification of several different types of pavement surfaces. If the system can identify non-uniformities on new construction projects properly, then the use of such a system can help improve the quality of the HMA layers and enhance pavement performance, increasing pavement service life with the consequent reductions in down time from repair work.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • de León Izeppi, Edgar David
  • Flintsch, Gerardo W
  • Abbott, A Lynn
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 86th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2007-1-21 to 2007-1-25
• Date: 2007

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: CD-ROM
• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 15p
• Monograph Title: TRB 86th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers CD-ROM

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Hot mix asphalt; Pavement design; Pavement distress; Pavement layers; Pavement performance; Pavements; Paving; Road construction; Standardization
• Candidate Terms: Imaging systems
• Uncontrolled Terms: Off-the-shelf
• Subject Areas: Construction; Design; Highways; Pavements; I22: Design of Pavements, Railways and Guideways; I52: Construction of Pavements and Surfacings;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01045589
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 07-1613
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Apr 4 2007 11:14AM